From the Scotsman:
A mass grave being excavated in Iraq’s “killing fields” has yielded evidence that the country’s forces executed women and children under dictator Saddam Hussein.
US-led investigators have located nine trenches near the northern town of Hatra containing at least 300 bodies. They are believed to be Kurds killed during the repression of the 1980s.
The skeletons of unborn babies and toddlers clutching toys are being unearthed, the investigators said.
The scientific exhumation is aimed at helping to convict Saddam of crimes against humanity.
“It is my personal opinion that this is a killing field,” said Greg Kehoe, a US lawyer appointed by the White House to work with the Iraqi Special Tribunal. “Someone used this field on significant occasions over time to take bodies up there, and to take people up there and execute them.
“I’ve been doing grave sites for a long time, but I’ve never seen anything like this, women and children executed for no apparent reason,” added Mr Kehoe, who spent five years in the Balkans. “It’s a perfect place for execution.”
The victims are believed to be minority Kurds killed during 1987-88. One trench contains only women and children, apparently killed by small firearms. Another contains only men, apparently killed by automatic gunfire.
Mr Kehoe said the women and children had been taken from their villages with their belongings, including pots and pans, shot – often in the back of the head – then bulldozed into the trench.
Some of the mothers died still holding their children. One young boy still held a ball in his tiny arms.
International organisations estimate more than 300,000 people died under Saddam’s 24-year rule and Iraq’s Human Rights ministry has identified 40 possible mass graves countrywide.
Update (see comments): experienced European investigators aren’t taking part “as the evidence might be used eventually to put Saddam Hussein to death”.
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